Category Archives: Using LinkedIn

There are some layout changes to the Personal Profile page which are being rolled out at the moment on LinkedIn – this is following a similar phase to other roll outs with a beta phase coming first and then extended across the network.

You may not yet have it but forewarned is forearmed so here are the changes I’ve noticed and some recommendations for 4 key elements where the emphasis has shifted.

[I’ve also highlighted some Points To Note (PTN) that I feel warrant a special mention – forgive me the use of yet another acronym but NB didn’t really seem to cut it anymore.]

What’s changing?

Well, for those of us who are yet to receive the new format, here are the two side by side: (more…)

I think that this is what you could call at best a functional post … if you were being kind! 🙂

However, it is something that I have been asked about on numerous occasions so I thought that it was time to bite the bullet and put the list together, at least as it currently stands.

What I am talking about is the list of Industries that LinkedIn uses on certain areas of the site and which are designed to allow categorisation and organisation of the industries in which both individuals and companies operate. These are two places where this designation appears (more…)

You may have noted that LinkedIn seems to have succumbed to an attack of the measles … green measles to be precise. For some they arrived last year only to disappear for a while, but then returned last week once again and are now back with a vengeance. For others, you may be seeing them for the first time and wondering what they signify.

Don’t worry, they’re not contagious. However, they do potentially offer us some valuable focus for our interactions on LinkedIn – so let’s get to the nitty gritty of what they are all about!

What do they mean?

This is part of the LinkedIn system that is called the ‘Active Status’ indicator and quite simply it shows when your connections are actually logged into the site and, to a certain point, also when they were last active.

With more and more activity happening online, in all of our interactions we have dual issues of both getting seen (and heard) while at the same time also staying safe – luckily there are some security aspects built into the LinkedIn system which may help.

I’m not talking about getting your homepage spam free – that’s a topic I’ve talked about elsewhere – but rather ensuring your access and activity on LinkedIn is as secure as possible. After all, it’s your own personal information, professional information and connections that are all built up in this site.

So, I’m going to encourage you to have a look at 6 areas that I’ve outlined below which will keep you – and your information – that little bit more secure on LinkedIn going forward.

1. Which services have access to your LinkedIn account

In a world where automation and streamlining seem to be pushing us to try to link everything together, we have no doubt allowed certain services to have access to our LinkedIn account to aid that process, Twitter being a prime example. (more…)

A lot of people I speak to about LinkedIn, particularly those who don’t spend all of their time online or glued to their phone, tell me they feel a little uncomfortable when they first go onto the site.

Why is this?

From what I can tell, it’s because they don’t know the rules … and we like to know the rules. Deep down the majority of us like to fit in and we feel comfortable when we do. We can reveal bits about ourselves at our own pace … and that pace will differ between individuals.

What do you do on LinkedIn?

Is it rude not to accept an invitation? What happens when I press “that” button? Do they know if I disconnect from them? Do they really know when I look at their profile? Do I have to read all the motivational quotes on my homepage?

If we don’t know how we should act then that’s not so good and we don’t want to offend. So what we do is … nothing.

To help, I try to equate LinkedIn with something they are more comfortable with and so I use the analogy that LinkedIn is simply (more…)

I used to do a lot of writing but, over the past couple of years, the ‘real work’ has taken over – you know the training and coaching stuff. But I’ve missed it and, particularly of late, I have desperately wanted to get back to it and rekindle my old mojo … from a blogging perspective.

In doing so, it seemed logical to do so while focusing in on my (some might say ‘all consuming’) passion that is LinkedIn – “blog about what you know”, I always used to tell people, so I’ll be following my own advice and sharing some of the things about LinkedIn that I have been wanting to get out there and so kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

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